Ian Botham adds to criticism of England’s Ashes build-up: ‘It’s not the way I would prepare’
Ian Botham takes fresh swipe at England’s Ashes preparations
- Cricket legend Ian Botham has raised concerns about England's limited warm-up schedule ahead of the Ashes series in Australia.
- England will play only one three-day internal match against the England Lions before the Ashes commences on 21 November.
- Botham believes this insufficient build-up will leave the team underprepared and unable to acclimatise to the unique Australian conditions as he told reporters “it’s not the way I would prepare”.
- He contrasted this with previous successful tours that included more extensive warm-up games, having previously claimed the current approach “borders on arrogance”.
- Botham, who was part of successful away Ashes tours, urged Ben Stokes's side to adopt an aggressive pace attack as England bid to win a series in Australia for the first time since 2010/11.